Old Bay Salmon Rillettes

Old Bay Salmon Rillettes are the perfect mashup of French cuisine with Maryland flavor. Spread over your favorite cracker for a delicious appetizer that will delight friends and family. 

Jump to:

• Why Make This Recipe
• 🥗 Ingredients
• 🥣 Instructions
• 🧐 Recipe FAQs
• 👩‍🍳 Expert Tips
• Other Delicious Appetizers
• 📖 Recipe

Why Make This Recipe

• Quick and easy to make! This recipe comes together in under 20 minutes, then can be kept in the refrigerator until you’re ready to serve.
• Healthy and packed with protein, vitamins, and Omega-3s from the salmon. Replacing some of the butter in a traditional rillettes recipe with Greek yogurt lightens it up a bit. 
• Unexpected but absolutely delicious. While rillettes are a common appetizer in France, they aren’t common in other regions of the globe. But they should be! This American take on this French dish is a great introduction to rillettes. 

🥗 Ingredients

• Salmon: If you have access to wild salmon, that is a great choice for Old Bay Salmon Rillettes. Unfortunately, the population of wild salmon has declined sharply over the past 20 years, and most readily available salmon is farmed. Farmed salmon has been shown to contain toxic chemicals, and to spread disease to native wild fish populations nearby.
  The good news is that some salmon farms have been working to improve their farming practices, so you can find farmed salmon that is more sustainable. The best place to go to research seafood choices is the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch website—there you can find the most environmentally-friendly options for the seafood you want to eat. Whole Foods also does a good job of monitoring their seafood sources, and labelling them based on their sustainability and eco-friendliness. 
• White Wine: I love the flavor that white wine adds to this dish, and the alcohol is boiled out as it cooks on the stovetop. However, if you don’t want to use white wine or don’t have access to it, you can replace this with seafood stock or even water. 
• Shallot: Feel free to replace with red onion. 
• Greek yogurt: You can try mayonnaise or creme fraiche as an alternative to Greek yogurt. Or just go full on with butter!

🥣 Instructions

• Thinly slice one shallot, zest lemon, and let 5 tablespoons of butter warm up enough to be spreadable. You can microwave it briefly to soften it up, but be careful not to melt it. 

• Bring ½ cup wine and 1 ½ cups of water to a simmer in a saucepan large enough to hold the salmon fillet. You want it to be just about covered with the liquid. (Using a deep skillet is also fine.)
• Add salmon and simmer gently for 8 minutes, or until cooked through. Feel free to turn salmon as it simmers to make sure all sides are cooked through. Remove from pan and let cool. 

• Add 1 tablespoon of butter to a small nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 finely chopped shallot and sauté until lightly browned, about 3-5 minutes. Let cool. 

• Whisk together 4 tablespoons of butter, 2 tablespoons of Greek yogurt, 1 tablespoon of Old Bay seasoning, ½ teaspoon of lemon zest, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, and 1 tablespoon of chopped chives. Taste and add more Old Bay seasoning as desired.

• Pat dry cooled salmon, then break up into flakes, removing skin. Stir gently into the butter mixture. Then spread into ramekins or other serving dish.

• Chill for 30 minutes to allow the flavors to meld and the butter to firm up again. 
• Sprinkle with Old Bay seasoning before serving.

🧐 Recipe FAQs

👩‍🍳 Expert Tips

• Not overcooking the salmon is the key to Old Bay Salmon Rillettes. Make sure that your water is only at a simmer, and not fully boiling. Since you will end up flaking the entire fillet, you won’t ruin it by checking whether the salmon is cooked through. Just stick your fork into it and see whether the flesh flakes apart. Note that if you have very thin fillets, they may be poached in less time than thicker fillets.

• Pay attention to the different temperatures in this recipe—the butter needs to be soft but not melted, in order to mix it with the rest of the ingredients. The salmon needs to cool after cooking, to prevent melting the butter. The shallots need to cool after caramelizing, for the same reason. Then the finished dish needs to chill together for the full flavor to come together. Finally, it’s best served cold, but not straight out of the fridge, so that the rillettes are easy to spread. 

• Love Old Bay Seasoning? Me too. Try it in this Old Bay Shrimp with Dipping Sauce recipe and in this Old Bay Salmon with Peach Avocado Salsa. And of course, it's critical in my Maryland-Style Crab Cakes recipe!

Other Delicious Appetizers

If you enjoyed this Old Bay Salmon Rillettes recipe and are looking for more crowd-pleasing appetizers, you’ll find lots of options here on my Appetizers page. Some of my favorites include:

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